Driving Ms. Gigi....and Dan

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this thing. Don’t worry, I’ve heard it from everyone. If I had a consumer hotline attached to this site I’m sure I would have tons of calls with colorful comments as to what the hell I’ve been up to. And while I love listening to people complain (really I don’t, I hate it…so don’t try it) I will forgo the remarks made by many and just tell you what’s been happening. If you’re not satisfied I will give you you’re money back, that is of course if you have paid me…which you haven’t so read at your own risk.

Let’s see…work info first. As you may already know I’ve been extended until May 26th. I won’t know until the end of April if I will get extended longer. Kind of hoping so, that way maybe I can see actual California weather in the summer since right now we’re having record rain…go figure. Work has been kind of stressful but I’m hoping it will turn around and be fun again. I have a theory…based on nothing as most of them are…that everyone gets their “crap day”. This is a day that just sucks, things aren’t going right, you just want to crawl back into bed, people are pissing you off left and right etc. Everyone gets them, especially if things are going pretty well…you are still doomed, it will happen. Sometimes these “crap days” also go on for weeks or months. Mine has been going on for a few weeks, but fear not! They usually end and hopefully I will be done with my “crap day” for awhile! If not, I suppose I can just move somewhere else…because that’s what this job is!

My parents came into the town this last weekend to see their favorite daughter. Being an only child has its advantage with that one…unless you count the dog as their other daughter and since their getting older I think this is happening. Oy! Friday we headed down to Monterey and Carmel. We saw the ocean…blue water and white sand, something not seen a lot by Seattle-ites. We pulled up, got out of the car, took a picture…yup, a beach…back in the car we go. Good times. We had lunch and walked around town and looked at all the tourist crap. We decided we didn’t need a t-shirt with the town logo or a stuffed animal wearing sunglasses and a hat (because my collection is getting a little too large). So we decided instead to take the “17 mile drive”. I will start by saying that I have been told I need to take this drive around Carmel. “It’s beautiful”, “You can’t miss it”…so onward we go. We first see that is cost $8.75 to drive this route…kind of like a state park type thing I guess. Although the local rich residents just fly past us and don’t have to pay a thing. Dad thinks this is “stupid”….pulling out his soap box now. We pay and get a copy of the “Carmel Pinecone”…a local paper for the rich I suppose. In it you will find some important info on local garbage pick up, city government, and of course house price listings…yeah, anyone up for putting down a cool $1.2 million for a 1200 square foot house? I think I’ll use it as my summer home…
As we drive around we really find that this pretty much sucks. All we’re seeing are trees (seen it), houses (seen those), water (seen that), and a few golf course including Pebble Beach (seen this before). Soap box out again. We were adding up the worth of this trip in our heads as we were driving around and really felt it was only worth around $4.17…but they wouldn’t give us our money back! Soap box out once again before we retire it for good.

The clouds were rolling in and so we decided to head home. On the way we hit rain and of course traffic. It wouldn’t be California without traffic! So along the slow ride home mom and I played a rousing game of 20 questions…I think dad really enjoyed this, who wouldn’t want to listen to two crazy women asking “animal, mineral, or vegetable” a thousand times?!

We went to dinner for my birthday at Buca di Bepo Friday night where the parents met “the new guy”. Normally people would be nervous about this situation, but I wasn’t…maybe it was the fact that mom and I polished off a bottle of wine by ourselves at dinner or maybe it was just that things went well. Bets are on the wine. Mom was all worried that she embarrassed me, I told her to be herself…and she was, but he stuck around so I suppose it wasn’t that bad…even with her manly haircut. (Don’t think I’m being mean, she got her hair cut and the little dude that cuts it went a little extreme…besides she’s the one that pointed out how bad it was.) It will grow…hopefully.

After the birthday dinner we came home and had the family treasure that is my great grandmas fudge cake! I have the best mom ever! She brought the recipe with her and made me my favorite birthday cake that I’ve had for the past 26 years…and it wouldn’t be a good 27th if she didn’t make it this year! Mmmmm, fudge cake! I was going to take leftovers to work so others could experience this jewel that is The Fudge Cake, but I will just say it now…there were no leftovers. Big surprise!

Saturday we ventured to the Winchester Mystery House. Mom found this online and it’s right down the road from where I work so we decided to check it out. Basically it is this huge house with over 100+ rooms, 40 staircases…some that went nowhere, and 6 kitchens, that some kooky old lady decided to build because she had way too much money on her hands from her dead husbands fortune and was trying to live forever because some spirit told her she would have eternal life if she built a house that never stopped with construction…like I said, Kooky.

After a full day of walking around the crazy house we drove into San Francisco to meet Erin at Biscuits and Blues where we ate dinner and listened to live blues music. We all were having a great time listening to the music until the dancing started. Oh Lord, please stop! A short balding guy with massive back hair coming out of his shirt started doing the white man shuffle while his girlfriend/escort started gyrating in her stretch acid wash jeans on one side/spandex checks on the other side pants. I thought my crab cakes were going to come up. If that didn’t do it, maybe the fact that my mom found something in her drink that we passed off as either a piece of napkin or skin would do it. Images of Erin and her super sensitive gag reflex are still imbedded in my mind!

Sunday the parents went home and I was left to sleep in my own bed! Sweet relief! All in all I had a good weekend and now I’m left to go back to work and deal with this crappy rainy weather! This is so wrong!

The best part of this new week is seeing Tanya, Kris, and baby Meg on Wednesday! What better birthday present is there than baby Meg!? I still don’t think her parents are going to let me take her to work with me…its therapeutic!

I also decided I’m taking a few days off later this month and coming home for a visit. I’ll be in town the 21st-25th so hopefully I can see everyone and maybe some sunshine!